Question

On what basis do humans give names to viruses, bacteria, protozoa etc? For example Corona, Ebola, HIV, Algae etc ?

Answer 1

As particles of different sizes, shapes, and composition were identified, it became clear that a systematic nomenclature was needed. Lwoff, Horne, and Tournier suggested a comprehensive scheme for classifying all viruses in 1962. Their proposal used the classical Linnaean hierarchical system of phylum, class, order, family, genus and species. The complete scheme was not adopted, but animal viruses were soon classified by family, genus, and species. Today new viruses are assigned to families based on the nucleic acid sequence of their genome.